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Press conference video

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell opened the second half on a 25-4 run and held off several Saint Joseph's charges after halftime to extend its win streak to five games, knocking off the Hawks 78-66 on Sunday afternoon at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 7-2, while Saint Joseph's fell to 3-4.



Senior Ryan Wittman led four Big Red players in double figures with 17 points, while Chris Wroblewski and Jon Jaques each had 15. Wroblewski added six assists and three rebounds. Jaques, in his first collegiate start, added two rebounds, and assist and a steal in 23 minutes. Also hitting for double figures was Geoff Reeves, who scored 13 points and had four rebounds. Jeff Foote had seven points, five rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes, while his backup, Mark Coury, had six points and six rebounds off the bench. Despite battling foul trouble, Louis Dale had five points, five rebounds and six assists. The Big Red shot 53 percent from the floor, limited the Hawks to 36 percent shooting and held a 34-31 edge on the backboards. Only its 19 turnovers kept Saint Joseph's in the game.

Garrett Williamson had 14 points, three assists, three steals and two blocks to lead the Hawks, while leading scorer Darrin Govens was held to 10 points on 1-of-7 shooting from the floor. Idris Hilliard had nine points and both Bryant Iriwn and Carl Jones notched eight. The Hawks got to the free-throw line 28 times to just nine for the Big Red and made 10 steals.

The Big Red uncharacteristically struggled with turnovers in the first 20 minutes, giving up the ball 12 times, but were able to maintain the lead for much of the half due to its solid 6-of-13 effort from 3-point range.

The hot shooting continued into the second half, as the Big Red hit consecutive treys from Dale and Wroblewski to get the lead back early in the second 20 minutes. Run was extended to 12-0 before the Hawks hit a free throw to stem the tide, but six consecutive points by Jaques, including a pair of free throws after an intentional foul was called on Saint Joseph's, helped extend the run to 25-4 over the first 6:10 of the half.

Saint Joseph's got back within 10 and had the ball twice with an opportunity to cut to within single digits, but Reeves stole an outlet pass and nailed a trey to push the Cornell lead back to 62-49, and it only got back to within 12 when Govens hit his only shot of the night with 19 seconds left to cap the scoring.

Cornell will attempt to extend its win streak to six games when it meets Davidson in the first round of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival on Sunday, Dec. 20 at noon. Cornell will meet either St. John's or Hofstra the following day in the championship/consolation game.